Someone in Hollywood is targeting me and tickling my funny bones with casting decisions. From the third billing Gary Oldman got for Lawless for five minutes work to the most recent jape of putting wee short Tom Cruise as author Lee Child’s film version of Jack Reacher. Get it? Short. Tom Cruise. Reach-er. As in something on the top shelf? Maybe just me then.
Forgive the obvious joke but it sets the tone for the rest of the glorious ’80s-ish action cop romp Jack Reacher plays homage to rather well.
Reacher (Cruise, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol) is an ex-military policeman who has resorted to a drifter lifestyle; living on the road and coming to the aid of the people who need it. He sees, and thinks, what other people don’t, and when a former military sniper Reacher was keeping an eye on goes off and murders five innocent people, Reacher doesn’t think the case is as open and shut as we think. Deciding to deliver the justice only he knows, he teams up with the sniper’s attorney, Helen Rodin (Rosamund Pike, Johnny English Reborn), and the pair begin to uncover a sinister plot
Despite not having any interaction with the Jack Reacher book previously, from what I’ve read, Cruise does a fine job as the character; he obviously doesn’t have the size and frame to be this big wrecking machine, but Cruise gets the mood and tone of Reacher bang on; he is undoubtedly a man of tremendous intelligence and thought process, but slightly unwilling to show it off as he wants to keep in the shadows, and at the same time he’s not afraid to get his hands dirty and deliver justice with his bare fists.
The rest of the cast is made nearly superfluous, but are memorable enough; Pike is okay as the morally confused attorney who must decide whether or not to help Reacher (when she’s trying to put the sniper away), Jai Courtney (Spartacus) is the main henchman Charlie and Reacher’s foil throughout the runtime (and he’s a decent enough foe to keep us hating throughout), and Robert Duvall (Get Low) as old man Cash (the late on sidekick) is cute enough and fits in with the tone of the movie.
Reacher has literally tonnes of action film tropes from the 1980s; the big bad (played by German filmmaker Werner Herzog) is really a foreign businessman with a tortured past and a gimmick (in this case, a glass eye), the final battle takes place at a ludicrous location, there’s a big build up to the final fight between our hero and the main henchman, a good guy turns bad after being paid off, there’s an iconic car used in a chase, and Cash becomes the lovable sidekick who helps out at the end; making Reacher reminiscent of top quality offerings from the time, like Lethal Weapon, Tango & Cash, and Cobra (amongst others), and great for anyone who was a fan of the genre at the time (even if some of the slapstick comedy is way too goofy at times, and would be better placed in a Naked Gun movie).
Reacher as a character is the perfect foil to base a film like this around, in a good throwback to the action heyday. It’s just a shame this character is clearly in the wrong decade; if Jack Reacher was made in the ‘80s we could have easily found someone capable of fitting the build as well as the character with the amount of decent action actors around at the time (such as Kurt Russell).
There were some aspects which really should have been played on more (even though what they did was serviceable enough); the former military sniper being trained for years to kill, and not getting one at all in his service, leading to a mental breakdown and him going around shooting people, was really interesting and it’s something that’s not really been made into a film yet. The detective plot was okay enough to keep the attention up, despite some heavy-handed macguffin mentionings. Actually, when it’s hinted that the sniper didn’t do it, it seems solid and concrete enough as an audience to believe that there’s no other possible way it can’t be anyone but him. Good storytelling.
Oddly enough, for an action film, it’s not really there. The final showdown is worthwhile, but every other sequence in the build up to it doesn’t really get the excite-o-meter going. Part of that is because they’ve spoiled it all in the various trailers; the street fight with various gang members, and the payoff to that, had already been spoilt, the henchmen-Reacher-police chase conclusion is already given away too, and apart from that, there wasn’t a great deal left in the tank. Case of trailers spoiling too much in a film when there wasn’t enough substance? Definitely.
Director Christopher McQuarrie has worked on a lot of scripts (like The Usual Suspects) before, and produced a couple of films as well, but this is his first time behind a camera; and it’s a good first time; he captures the spirit of Reacher perfectly, and ensures the film doesn’t get too bogged down in an intricate storyline as he gets in all the main points from the Reacher novel this film is based on (One Shot); earning him a real thumbs for his directorial debut.
As much as I loved the genre it played tribute to (and admit it did the job rather well), there are simply far too many distracting jokes, and not enough hard action, to consider it a successful homage. Still, Reacher is a great little action film with a decent detective plot, and despite people being a bit snarky over the casting, Cruise does a great job as Jack Reacher, and makes this a decent alternative film to catch over the festive season.
Terry Lewis – @thatterrylewis.
